855 ff. With this passage we may compare the description in Walsingham, vol. i. p. 454, ‘quorum quidam tantum baculos, quidam rubigine obductos gladios, quidam bipennes solummodo, nonnulli arcus prae vetustate factos a fumo rubicundiores ebore antiquo, cum singulis sagittis, quorum plures contentae erant una pluma, ad regnum conquaerendum convenere.’
868. The reading ‘de leuitate’ is given also by G.
869. limpidiores. The epithet is evidently derived from 1 Sam. xvii. 40, where the Vulgate has ‘et elegit sibi quinque limpidissimos lapides de torrente.’
876. ‘These fools boast that the earth has been wetted,’ &c.
871 ff. Cp. Metam. xi. 29 f.
879 f. Cp. Conf. Amantis, Prol. 37*. One of the charges against Sir Nicholas Brembre in 1388 was that he had designed to change the name of London to ‘New Troy.’
891. siluis que palustribus, ‘from the woods and marshes.’
904. Cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. iii. 577 f.
909. Cp. Metam. viii. 421.
919. Corpus Christi day, that is Thursday, June 13.